The mess and madness of product discovery

In his seminal book, Asking for trouble, veteran market researcher Jon Cohen poses this question: How do you understand what people think, when you can’t trust what they say?

As Cohen goes onto to explain, market research, the activity of asking questions about what people think of an idea, product, prototype or advertising campaign is an annoyingly tricky business. Because the very act of asking, of sitting people down and directing their attention towards something, creates a new and different reality: A land of make believe. Your subjects are no longer wandering around in the world, listening to podcasts, fighting with their spouses, ignoring their children and missing deadlines at work. They are focussed on your questions. Which isn’t natural at all.

The whole process of product invention is messy and maddening. That’s because as Marty Cagan says, it’s a fundamentally creative process. Anything that starts with a blank sheet of paper is frustrating and difficult and tiring and expensive. And that’s why so many shy away from it or worse pay lip service to it.

In my first tech startup, The Outside View, we spent six months being rejected out of hand by a number of different people and industries. We knocked on the doors of advertising agencies, telecoms companies and recruitment businesses. It was disheartening and because it was pre-zoom we got through a fair bit of shoe leather. Only when we were introduced to Knight Frank and an amazing partner there called Noel Flint did we find a potential niche in the property market.

There is a naked brutality to repeated rejection. The art is to not let yourself feel rejected. It is your idea, not you who has been told no. For entrepreneurs and product managers, the faster they can embrace this fact the better. But it’s easier said than done. As I embark on a new start up I can feel my ego bruising like a peach at each rejection and gesture of disinterest.

However, the truth is often hidden within the negative feedback. Firstly, while we should pay close attention to what our potential users say, customers rarely know what they want until it is shown to them. That’s the reason rapid prototyping is so important. And secondly, it is not the words that potential customers say that matters, it’s what we do with them as a result.

So as I re-enter this land of make believe and lace up my shoes for a second tilt at the start up windmill, I remind myself that it’s not just what people say but what they do that matters. And hopefully, that means buying a product you’ve built that solves a real problem for them. Or just crying into your pillow at night. Both activities feel part of the messy and maddening process that never seems to get any easier.

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Fortell.ai launches on Monday the 6th of March. You can try the earliest and ugliest prototype imaginable at fortell.ai/fortell

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